London May Day March – Reactions to the Donetsk Flag (1.5.2018)

Earlier in the year, we attended a protest outside the Ukrainian Embassy in London, regarding the neo-Nazi ‘Maidan’ regime (in Kiev) ‘banning’ the Communist Party – whilst continuing to manufacture false history about the USSR and to glorify the Nazi German invasion and subsequent holocaust in the USSR. This was organised by the Young Communist League (YCL) – a branch of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB). After I blogged about our experience (the Ukrainian Embassy Staff refused to hear our protest and called the police), I was contacted via social media by a representative of the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of Donetsk (KPDNR), and I was asked to assist their effort in Eastern Ukraine to resist the Western-backed neo-Nazi attacks, by translating articles written by members of the Communist Party of Donetsk into English. Donetsk and Lugansk are two Socialist Republics existing in the Donbass area of Eastern Ukraine, both of which declared their independence from the neo-Nazi ‘Maidan’ regime in 2014. Donetsk and Lugansk are defended by a lightly armed volunteer militia, whilst the Kiev military is well armed and financed by the US, EU and UK. The purpose of this policy is to extend EU sovereignty throughout the Ukraine, and establish a hostile military force on the boundaries of modern Russia. The people of Donbass are ethnically ‘Slav’ and identify with Russia – and not with the culture and politics of Western Europe (which opposed the USSR for decades). This being the case, I see no reason why we should believe the lies the BBC and mainstream media are telling us – trying to convince the general population that the neo-Nazi thugs in Kiev are ‘freedom fighters’, and the peaceful and civilised Socialists of Donetsk and Lugansk are ‘evil’ entities worthy of our scorn. Instead, we must use our own intellects and by-pass the lying mainstream media and go straight to the source of the news stories. In this regard, my family has had a burst of pro-Donetsk activity which has involved localised and relatively small-scale activities in the UK, performed with the utmost sincerity. My partner Gee and myself, decided that whilst carrying the Red Flag through London on the annual May Day March, we would also carry the flag of Donetsk. Oddly enough, although Donetsk is not internationally recognised as ‘officially’ existing, and given that the Western world is bankrolling its destruction, we were able to order a Donetsk flag from Amazon in the UK!

When we arrived in Clerkenwell, we expected to find the CPB banner in its usual place, but we could not find any trace (this remained the case throughout the march). We gathered in the usual place and straight away two very dignified Russian women came to great us and asked for photographs with our flags! This was a good start. Then an elderly couple we have seen before asked us what the Donetsk flag represented – and when we told them they were quite happy (they took Donetsk to mean the ‘People’s Republic of Eastern Ukraine’). There then appeared an aggressive Russian speaking woman who took exception to me answering her in English. She asked me why I was carrying a flag of a people who were not on the march. I answered that it was difficult to travel when your country is under a continuous attack from Western-backed neo-Nazis. She became silent and quietly walked away. Then three working class men approached and asked me what I was doing, and I explained the above story. They were surprisingly receptive and said that nowadays even the Guardian newspaper tells lies! We started marching with a group of Sri Lankan activists from the Front Line Socialist Party (Lanka) UK Committee (with whom I had a very profound discussion). A police officer placed herself immediately to my left and walked very close to me – trying to hear what I was saying to my partner as I marched along. I knew she was there but I did not acknowledge her presence or engage her in conversation. I was not committing a crime and was not in distress – and so did not require the attention of a police officer. However, it is interesting that this type of ‘aggressive’ policing would happen under the Blairite London Mayor – Labour’s Sadiq Khan. After about ten minutes the police officer left my side and she was replaced with an elderly woman carrying Trotskyite SWP literature. She looked at Gee (my partner) but would not speak to her (the typical anti-Chinese racism found amongst Trotskyites) but instead said that Donetsk was a ‘Russian’ neo-Nazi State, and that China was not Socialist. When I answered that China and Donetsk are both Socialist she turned her back and walked away. There then followed three more British marchers who were genuinely interested to hear about Donetsk – but again one of them looked at Gee and said to me that China is not Communist. As a family we work to uproot all prejudice in society and to propagate a truly Scientific Socialist path. We did well as a family carrying the flag of a Socialist State that the UK is trying to militarily destroy, through a city with a police force that now carries guns and follows the orders of a rightwing elected dictatorship!